Eh. I like to think of myself as a semi-rational person but I have an irrational hate of Yelp. They have shitty business practices and are known for it. Plenty of people on here as well as myself have posted about Yelp and most of our solutions are the same just ignore their calls because it's easier. I will side with pretty much anyone over Yelp and wouldn't put this past them.

100% true. Back in college, we had someone leave a very unusual 1 star review for my work. Yelp called all the time for about a month trying to talk to my boss about "increasing his positive outreach" aka give us cash and we'll take the 1 star down.

I'm kind of surprised they can do that I remember when the Better Business Bureau got taken to task for something very similar. The KKK was able to pay for a A+ rating. It caused a lot of controversy back in the late 90s early 2000's. I believe the BBB had to stop the practice.

Edit:
I can't find the Reader's Digest story about the KKK paying for a satisfactory rating.
However I was able to find other recent stories about other companies "paying to play" with the BBB or being shut out of good ratings from the BBB by not "paying to play."

They just can't prove it is because they dance around it with the "opportunity to improve your business's image" vs "give us money to remove bad reviews". But yeah, that's how I descibe it to people too. I know a dentist who is constantly bothered by them. In a small town, no less- so his business is largely word of mouth anyway. So it's fun to watch him fuck with them.

Longtime lurker here, but I just wanted to share that this exact same thing happened to my restaurant last week. At the time I believed it was sabotage by a competitor as well but after seeing your post, it seems much too coincidental for this exact situation to have happened to another business owner.

I had finally blocked all of Yelp's marketing numbers from my cell phone about two weeks ago, sending them direct to voicemail, after telling the salespeople multiple times that I was not interested and for them to stop calling me, but they never stopped. I didn't block them on our business phone. Then all last week we had been getting calls from customers asking if we were open, which I thought was strange, until Thursday night when a customer told us that our business has been marked as closed on Yelp. So we checked Yelp's website, only to discover that they had deleted our business listing off of our business owner's account with no email or call or anything to verify whether we were closed.

It was already too late in the night to call them but luckily one customer found an FAQ page on Yelp's website that says business owners cannot report substantial changes to a listing (such as a closure) and Yelp users must be the ones to report such changes. So all of the customers present went to our business listing and submitted an error report that our location was still open (this was done by clicking on the edit business info button). Then we posted on our website and social media asking other customers to do the same and quite a few responded with screenshots showing they did. Finally we were able to call Yelp Friday morning but turns out they don't even have a customer service number for business owners, we had to call their advertising department as it was the only number listed on the business owner help page. So we call and the sales rep notifies us that our business has been marked as closed. We told him that's the reason we called and he says they have gotten numerous reports from Yelp users about our listing being open so he would forward the issue to operations and call us back in half an hour. Well over an hour passed with no phone call so we called back and they finally fix it. Then we realized that we weren't showing up in Yelp search results even though we weren't marked as closed anymore so we call again. They said they would fix it so we didn't call back but I wasn't able to see us in any Yelp searches until Saturday. Then I realized that when Googling our business, the Yelp link on Google search results still said closed in all caps so I was planning to call again Monday but it was finally fixed Monday afternoon before I had time to call.

Now it's been a week after the whole ordeal and everything seems to be fine but I would not wish this experience on anyone. Hopefully you can get your listing fixed as we did!

Then I realized that when Googling our business, the Yelp link on Google search results still said closed in all caps so I was planning to call again Monday but it was finally fixed Monday afternoon before I had time to call.

Wow. So Google re-scanned the yelp site in just a few days. I remember 2001 or so, this would have taken weeks.

The quick solution is to make a yelp account of your own and re-add your business or flag it as not closed. Don't mention you are the owner, just do so like you were a customer.

The better method to get a company to stop calling you is to tell them to place you on their do not call list. Make note of the date and time you tell them. If they call you again, document the date and time then report them to the FTC.

The FTC fines for Yelp go up the more they violate the law by continuing to call you. If they retaliate in any way, you have grounds for a lawsuit and possible criminal charges for harassment.

Edit: you can also put the yelp salesperson on hold, then conference call the FTC and let them have a direct conversation.

I tend to agree. Yelp comes up on my caller ID. I pick up the call to get a connection then just hang up or let the answering machine pick it up. Learning about this instance, it's the right thing to do. I've learned that getting into a conversation with them is even worse than ignoring them. You would think that such a business model in such a competitive market would eventually fail. Apparently too many people fall for their scam.

You don't have to notify yelp, but it isn't unreasonable for them to think that the business is closed when the listed number says it has been disconnected... Whatever questionable business tactics they use, it is their database and its not like it is an unreasonable jump to make...

I explained to the rep once very sincerely that I wasn't interested. Whatever statistics his website was showing as having directed people to me wasn't accurate. Out of the customers I have on a daily basis very few attempted to collect a 10% discount to tell the cashier they found us through Yelp. I haven't received a sales call from them in over a year.

The amount of time I wasted not answering their call or picking up and hanging up on them was insane. It took 10 solid minutes of rational conversation to get them off my back. If more people utilized it to find and patronize my business I could justify the expense.

Simply not answering their calls as opposed to downloading an app that misleads them into thinking the businesses phone has been disconnected isnt pandering to them. He could have also just answered the calls and asked to be removed from their marketing list.

They didn't list his business as being closed because he didn't answer their calls, they listed it as closed because he falsely presented the businesses number as being disconnected. Not answering their calls isn't acknowledging them. If he would have not used the app and just not answered their calls and they still listed him as closed then your comment would be applicable and true, but that's not the case here.

These third party services really need to be overseen. They hold a lot of power over these businesses and I don't think it's fair that A) trolls could just mass neg review places for the lulz B) competitors dissing local competition to increase their image-and also get their friends and family to do the same and C) Yelp gets to PROFIT of these greedy deals with these businesses (Mom and pop stores, medical professionals, etc). They're not the fucking BBB (which is laughable nowadays). They need to be regulated.

It appears implied that OP answered the call at some point in the not-too-distant past, and is only recently blocking what again are implied excessive sales calls. I tend to assume this implication because I have friends that have dealt with this sort of thing from Yelp. It sounds like you may not have had this experience. If this is this case, it more like slandering a business after harassing them. If you've dealt with Yelp, there's a good chance you know what I'm talking about.

Just because a number is disconnected doesn't mean the business is closed. They could've switched phone companies and had to get a new number. By assuming it was closed yelp is in fault. As the old saying goes "assuming only makes an ass out of U and ME"

It's not like they just didn't get an answer, the message said the number was disconnected.

Inability to contact them would be if it always went straight to voicemail or said their number had been blocked. A number being disconnected means it isn't in service because the bill isn't being paid or the account is closed. It's drastically different from them being unable to get in contact.

Agreed. But there are other methods of blocking their calls (e.g. sending them straight to voicemail). If you call a business and get a recording that the number is disconnected, it is reasonable to assume the business has closed.

I thought clients meant people who already found you and you have an existing relationship. If you're relying on Google and yelp shows up in the top results for potential clients searching, then yes it sounds problematic.

Hundreds of comments here, and yes it is super clear that yelp sucks and everyone hates it blah blah blah. I know this will sound crazy, but have you tried contacting Yelp customer service and telling them your business exists and to correct their entry for you?

Hmm, I wonder if it could be construed as libel? They are putting up false information without verification as well as being known for scummy business tactics. I'd have a chat with a lawyer, may be worth your time. Also are they calling your business phone or your personal line?

Since all you have to do is not mail in an opt-out form, and the millions of dollars worth fines that would be leveled against Yelp would protect all other small businesses they are blackmailing now, absolutely. Not even a question.

I won't use Yelp and tell everyone I know to do the same. It is insanely easy to game their system. (and I'm sure they know this is occurring)

I used to work for a shady, shitty little computer store. The owner would check in work we had no business even trying to do since he would refuse to order parts and I bought and owned my own tools while I worked there.

Of course it would go untouched. At the end of day 2 or so, he'd call the customer and just lay down the sob story. Oh, we tried so hard, went the extra mile in troubleshooting, this and that, but it's just not repairable. No charge, of course.

Free goodwill and we never lifted a finger to touch a third of the stuff we checked in. Tons of our reviews were 'Tried hard and couldn't fix but didn't charge! Great place!'

Not sure if this is the right place for this but I can’t recommend Foursquare enough. Yelp has been known to basically extort businesses for a long time. I don’t trust them nor their reviews for businesses. Foursquare on the contrary has one of the best location databases, a pretty accurate search/recommendation feature for when I’m looking for something and I trust the reviews I see on there. It’s all more or less managed by Superusers (private, unpaid volunteers) and Foursquare rarely interferes with stuff like this. Plus you won’t get any sales calls from them.

I have had them hound me at least 2-3 times a week when they first called. I didn't feel like my business needed any yelp advertisement as my customer base didn't use Yelp as a resource to find businesses (business located in a largely Hispanic area) but they don't like to hear no as an answer.

Anyways, I simply told the representative to call me back in a few months as my business is under contract with a potential buyer. They leave me alone and since representatives always seem to switch, I use the same excuse over and over so I only get one phone call every 2 months at the most. I've been doing this for the past 2 years. On a side note, my business is now actually under contract and settlement is in two weeks. If they call again, I don't know if I'll sleep better knowing I didn't lie again...

They are shady but think about it for a second. They've been calling OP. OP then blocked Yelp with a message that the number *has been disconnected *. I don't know the program OP used but if they had an option to say anything else as a message it would have been better. Like the person you were replying to said, what else are they supposed to think when they get a message the number is disconnected? What would you think if you called a business and get a recording the number is disconnected?

You made a decision that would present your business as being closed to them and now you are mad because that's what they think. Take responsibility for your actions and call them to remedy this instead of complaining that they aren't tracking you down after you cut off communication to them in a misleading way.